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What if God's plan for your relationship wasn't the easiest or the most convenient? Would you still follow it? Everyday we make choices on what's most convenient for us but that doesn't always mean what's convenient is best. Anything that is best takes work and effort and our relationships are no exception. This week, we see what the Bible has to say about the work that needs to be done to gain the healthy relationships God wants for us.

Love is the most powerful emotion that we all experience, but it is also the most complicated. Who we love and who loves us is tightly woven into what we believe about ourselves, our identity, and our worth. And if we're honest, our experiences with love and our expressions of it probably pale in comparison to the hopes we have for it. This week, we what does God say about love, who we are attracted to, and how we pursue intimacy with them and see how the Bible addresses 3 of the most common myths about love that we believe.

For a lot of us, the thought of God being a Spirit probably brings up some questions. There are some churches who make a big deal out of the Holy Spirit and some that barely talk about Him at all. Maybe your thoughts about the Holy Spirit kinda weird you out a little bit or your brain likens the Holy Spirit to the Force from Star Wars. A lot of these kinds of feelings and misconceptions come from not understanding the role the Holy Spirit has in the Christian's life. In the last week of this series, we will see how the Bible describes who the Holy Spirit is and see why He is so vital to our Christian lives.

Many religions believe that there is only one God, but where the paths start to diverge is when it comes to Jesus. Is Jesus in fact God? How can He be God and have been an actual human being in history? How can He be God and the Son of God? And if he is God, then what does that mean for us and our faith? This week, we look at who the Bible says Jesus is and find three things about Him that can change how we view Him.

Many of us have complicated relationships with God. We view as distant or detached from our lives. We might see Him as a the judge of all wrong and pouring out punishment on those who do wrong. What if our complicated relationship with God stems from incorrect information about who He really is? This week, we see 3 different characteristics of God that can completely shift what we thought we knew about God.

You would most likely say that you know of God. You probably know some of some stories in the Bible and have your own images and ideas about who He is. But is it possible to really KNOW Him? How can someone or something so complex be known or understood? In this series, we will see how the Bible describes the complexities of God with simple words because the more accurate your understanding of who God is, the more meaningful your relationship with Him will be.

Through technology, we have access to more content and more conveniences than ever before, but we feel more disconnected than ever before. And while conveniences are great and can improve the quality of our lives, the danger is that we can soon prioritize convenience over the meaningful things in life. If you feel like you've been conveniencing the meaning from your life, there's hope to readjust and bring more meaning and quiet to your life.

After a life full of disappointments and sacrifice with little thanks, we see George Bailey, the main character from It's A Wonderful Life, wondering if everyone and everything would have been better off in this life if he has never been born. As we wrap up our Christmas At The Movies, Pastor Sean asks the question, what would be different if Jesus has never been born? Would it really affect your life? And if so, how does it affect your today, your tomorrow, and the rest of your life?

We are encouraged in our world to find our own identity. To either associate our lives with a certain label or to break free and create our own. But when you choose to follow Jesus, your identity shifts. The way you see yourself should change as well as the way that you see others. Just like in the Christmas movie The Santa Clause, when Scott puts on the Santa suit it changes everything about his life. So how does our identity shift as followers of Jesus and what does that mean for us?

Sometimes, it just feels like something is missing. You’re not complete. You might be able to identify exactly what it is that you need or you might not be able to put your finger on it. But for whatever reason, you feel unsettled inside. Unrest. All you know is that something needs to change. What we do with that feeling of incompleteness says a lot about what we treasure and what matters to us.

With Thanksgiving being a Holiday focused on gratitude and Christmas focused on generosity, you'd think that this time of year, we would all be in a pretty good mental and emotional state. But according to new reports, 3x more of us are dealing with mild to severe symptoms of depression since the beginning of the pandemic. So how can we replace the negativity all around us with something more positive and how can we change our focus so that we can live with the joy God intends for us?

Life has a way of throwing us curveballs. Just when you least expect it, things start to not go your way and often, it feels like our life, our happiness, and our plans unravel quickly. You find this theme in Home Alone where Kevin is unexpectedly left by his family and when burglars try to take advantage, he is left with a choice on how to respond. In the same way, we have a choice on how to respond when things don't go our way, and we learn from the life of Joseph principles to help when life seems to be at its most difficult.

We'd all agree that our world needs more compassion and empathy. To find more common ground and less to fight over. To prioritize unity with those that we disagree with. The problem though is that we don't want to be the ones to do that. We can be compassionate to those we love and those we deem deserving, but we have a hard time finding compassion for those that have wronged and opposed us. But living with an uncommon compassion just might be what it takes for the world to see the love of God in you.

Most people would aspire to being known as generous. Whether it's time, talent, or resources, we know the impact generosity has in our world. This is the kind of uncommon life that God would have us live. A life lived using things to help people rather than using people to get things. But when we look at our calendars and bank accounts, can we really say that we live with uncommon generosity? And maybe that has a lot more to do with our own hearts than how busy we are or how much margin we have in our income.

We are more divided as a country now than we ever have been in our lifetime. Between political and social unrest, it seems that division defines not only our country, but most of us. And sadly during this time, the church has not presented itself as the solution. Christians are just as contentious, angry, bitter, and divisive on social media as anybody else. But this was never God's plan for the church. In fact, God's plan for unity is our responsibility. It's mine and it's yours. So what needs to change?

As we look back over the last 15 years of our church's history, we celebrate all the incredible things that God has done in and through our church family. And because we believe that God is not done, we expectantly look forward to the next chapter and the exciting things He has for our church in the coming years.

Remember when you were a kid and you couldn't wait to be old enough to be in high school or drive a car. And then you couldn't wait for college or to get married. And then you couldn't wait to have kids or get your first real job. And if we're honest, this cycle never really ends! There are most likely things in your life right now that you are not content with and you can't wait until...what? Is it possible to simply be okay with life right now? With who you are, where you are, and what you have?

Mental and emotional weight that we carry can often have a physical result. We feel our chest getting tighter and sometimes it feels like it's hard to breathe. We walk around feeling anxious, frustrated, stressed, and exhausted. And the longer we carry this weight around, the heavier it begins to feel. We talk about the feeling of having a weight lifted, but how do we get there?

Feeling overwhelmed is normal to experience from time to time. There are days where we feel there is not enough time to get everything done that we need to. But then there are seasons of life where feeling overwhelmed is the norm. Life you don't have what it takes to keep up with your life. And it always seems that we are in these seasons, the storms of life come. Where is God in these seasons and how do we move past them to find our grounding again?

We like to know what's coming next. We like it when everything goes according to our plans. The problem we face is that life just isn't like that. We go through seasons where everything seems to work out how we want and it gives us the illusion that it should always be that way. But as our circumstances become more uncertain, we often become more scared and more anxious. But what's the alternative? How can we find peace and rest when everything else in life seems so uncertain?